Volume 11 , Issue 5

Okfuskee County High School - 1909-1935

The Chronicles of Oklahoma, Vol. 37, pg 205, also mentioned -- Okfuskee County High School operated 26 years in the small town of Paden, near the wester line of the county and not near another center of white population.

During the first year of statehood, Okfuskee County voters were eagerly looking forward to participating in their first election of State and National officials, as this area was, until 1907, part of Indian Territory. Okemah was the county seat and some of the other towns felt the need of some kind of institution. A mass meeting was held at Paden in August, 1908, and a county hgih school was the topic being discussed and it was reported that one proponent stated, "Let Okemah have the county seat and Weleetka the penitentiary, but let Paden push for schools."

October 6, 1908, the Okfuskee county commissioners were presented with a petition signed by 876 voters of the county, more than the one third needed to call for a vote on the county high school proposal. The commissioners submitted the easure at the regular election, November 3, 1908, and it probably received very little attention outside the Paden community, due to interest in the general election. The proposal carried 1,196 "for" and 1,038 "against."

A majority of the precincts voted against it, including Weleetka and Boley but Okemah, for some reason, voted favorably. The Paden majority was 205, which was 47 more than the majority in the entire county. The Paden vote decided the issue.

In March, 1909, the county high school law was repealed, but with the provision that any county operating a high school or having voted to establish one as much as sixty days prior to the date when the repeal became effective would be allowed to operate a county school under the law of 1901 and the 1903 amendments to it. This enabled Okfuskee County High School to open in Paden in September, 1909, in the Paden public school building, where it operated through its 26 years.

Weleetka citizens filed an injunction questioning the legality of the election at which the measure had carried. The vote was upheld by the court in May, 1910. later the Turstees negotiated for a contract for a two-story, brick building, 104 by 68 feet, in dimension, at a contract price of $19,851. In the autumn of 1911 the voters of the county defeated, 569 to 384, a bond issue to erect a county high school building. There were two high school teachers, including the principal, the first few years and with very small enrollments, and they mostly from the Paden District. Early principals included T. A. Gross, E. E. Knack, and Luther Russell.

In its later years there were five teachers, maybe six sometimes. The principals and Paden superintendents in the last decade included Cecil E. Oakes and Gilbert L. Robinson.

Through the last two decades the school was accredited by the State Department of Education for 19 to 23 1/2 units, showing a fair range of elective courses. For a good many years, there were two units each of Latin and Spanish, the latter dropped first and Latin disappearing in the very last years. Home economics and agriculture, was well as business subjects, music and speech proved popular in latter years.

In January, 1916, the enrollment was reported as 32, with only 26 still on the roll, and the largest enrollment the school had ever had. it was not probable that the school ever drew much beyond the district boundaries and a few from neighboring districts. Its location made this inevitable.

Red Phillips, as Speaker of the House of Representatives, was instrumental in bringing about the abolishment of the Okfuskee County High School at the close of the school year 1934-35.

the records of the County Superintendent of Okfuskee County had an account of an important meeting held at Okemah, July 22, 1935. The county High school trustees invited to meet with them the county commissioners, county excise board, county attorney, and members of the board of Paden District No. 14. The chairman stated that the purpose of the meeting was to determine whether further funds could be raised for the county school. When it was explained that there were no available funds a resolution was offered and passed unanimously.

July, 1935, was the last time that Okfuskee County High School legally existed. Prior to that date Paden Schools had included grades one through eight. The Oklahoma Public School Directory for 1935-36 shows an increase in the number of Paden teachers from eight to eleven, the increase being due to absorbing the high school. Mr. Oakes stated that it continued in the same two-story red brick building, owned by the Paden District, where it had been previously operating at the expense of the entire county.
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